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The Fair Haired Hare
The Fair Haired Hare is a 1951 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng. Plot Bugs Bunny, contentedly singing "Home on the Range", adding that rabbits also live on the prairie, is startled after Yosemite Sam builds a cabin above his rabbit hole. Bugs tries to find out what's going on, interrupting Sam's banjo rendition of "Git Along, Little Dogies". Sam attributes this disturbance to mice. Bugs saws a hole and climbs out through a bearskin rug, causing the bunny to panic. Sam shoots the rug repeatedly and says, "Playin' possum for 20 years! That'll learn ya!" The two then begin quarreling over who has rights to the property. Bugs claims he was there first and should live there undisturbed ("Oh, uh, there must be some mistake. You see, through some error you built your house on my property. I'm afraid I'll have to ask ya to move it, doc."), while Sam isn't interested in listening to a rabbit's opinion and instead throws Bugs out of his house ("What?! Ooh, listen, rabbit! Yosemite Sam never makes a mistake! Now get that flea-bitten carcass offin' my real estate! AND STAY OUT!"). Bugs decides this may be a civil matter and decides to go to "the highest court in the land" — which they do: it's literally the "highest court" in the land, being atop a mountain. There, the judge declares that both Bugs and Sam shall share the land equally ... "and in the event that one of you should pass on, the other shall inherit the entire property." Sam chuckles evilly, making Bugs uneasy. Sam repeatedly tries to kill Bugs, but all of his schemes go awry: * That night, the two bunk in the same bedroom, their beds on opposite sides of a window. After Sam turns out the light ("Good night, varmint!", "Uh, good night."), Sam tries to sneak over to Bugs' bed to klonk him on the head. Bugs turns on the light in time, causing Sam to make the hasty excuse, "Carpet keeps rolling up! Good night, critter!" (he does this as he pretends to bang the floor). Sam makes a second attempt, and indeed someone does suffer a concussion — Sam, as Bugs has hit his antagonist on the head ("There, that oughta keep that carpet flat!", "Good night, varmint, critter!"). * At breakfast, Sam tries slipping a Mickey Finn into Bugs' carrot juice, while Bugs is in the bathroom. However, Bugs is wise and trades the drug-laced drink with Sam's. When Sam refuses, Bugs plays a game of roulette ("Round she goes!"). Sam loses his patience and orders Bugs to drink at gunpoint. Bugs does, but only after Sam drinks his. Nothing happens to Bugs, making Sam realize that he has consumed the poisoned drink — moments before he blasts off into the sky. Sam runs back and immediately chases Bugs back into his hole. He then realizes the only way to kill the rabbit is to pack his hole with explosives. However, Bugs diverts the dynamite under the house foundation. Sam then lights the fuse, but realizes too late that his house is about to be blown up. The cabin flies upwards. A dazed Sam, upon realizing his fate, remarks, "I've got a cabin in the sky!" Notes * It was the first short released in which Yosemite Sam was drawn with his mouth in his red mustache for almost the entire film, barring the scene in court, and the scene after Sam drinks the carrot juice, where his bottom lips can be seen. It is also one of the few cartoons where Sam refers to Bugs by name. * Sam's last line is a reference to Cabin in the Sky, a 1943 MGM film based on the Broadway play of the same name. * The audio for the "Home on the Range" song sung by Bugs would be used for the ending of the TV special, How Bugs Bunny Won the West. * The scene where Sam fires several pistol shots at Bugs (when trapped in the bear skin rug), along with the "playing possum for twenty years" line, would later be partially referenced in "Muzzle Tough". Availability * VHS - Stark Raving Looneys * VHS - Bugs Bunny: Truth or Hare * LaserDisc - Bugs Bunny: Winner by a Hare: 14 of Bugs Bunny's Best Censorship * The version of this cartoon that aired on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show cut the part where Bugs gets stuck in a bearskin rug and Sam shoots at it to release Bugs http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/ltcuts/e-f. External Links The Fair Haired Hare on the SFX Resource Category:Bugs Bunny Cartoons Category:Yosemite Sam Cartoons Category:Cartoons that contain excerpts from "Powerhouse" Category:Shorts Category:1951 Category:Looney Tunes Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster Category:Cartoons animated by John Carey Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer